A pokemon fic of a sorta different sort
by Nepryne
Summary: ...And yet rather the same as a good deal of them. Sigh. Cowrie, a young furret pokemorph (as in anthro), has finally been given the chance to become a pokemon trainer like her human counterparts. What sort of stuff will she end up running into...?
1. Default Chapter

_Intro note: _Bleh...I forget exactly when I first started writing this story - but it was a while back, after wanting to write something about an anthro pokemon character of mine. :/ Still _quite_ unfinished, and I have no idea when I'm gonna start it back up again. I'm not much of a fanfic writer...or a story writer, period.

This is not necessarily a finalized version, anything here is subject to change as I feel fit...whenever I feel like rewriting it, anyways. The title for this isn't even the real title - I never gave it a true title. Again, someday...maybe.

To anybody who hates trainer fics of any kind...it would probably be best if you just hit the 'back' button on your browser now.

End note.

* * *

Today was the day. Today was the big day, when she'd finally be able to get her own pokemon training license...she had passed the test before, and now was the day she'd finally get her license for real...

"Whoo!"

At sixteen years of age, she was a bit late in getting her training license...since the normal age was around ten or eleven. That age was for human kids, though...and Cowrie was not quite human.

She was a furret pokemorph – and a still-rather-newly evolved one at that, since she had evolved just the year before. She nearly bounced around as she left her house, excited about what was going to happen very, very soon.

The reason for her being this late in getting a pokemon training license was that, until recently, pokemorphs around there hadn't been allowed to take the test to qualify for one. Cowrie didn't know what had happened that had changed that fact...but she was sure glad for it. Ever since she had heard about training pokemon from a couple of human kids, she had wanted to try it for herself.

"Alright mom, I'll be back later!" Cowrie called through the open door. She heard her mother respond affirmatively, and then closed the door behind her – although she closed it a little too hard, perhaps.

Cowrie knew that some other morphs had a thing against training pokemon – it was cruel, they said. It wasn't right to use pokemon, to trap them against their will, with the possible end of sitting in a computer for days, months, or sometimes even years. But so what? Cowrie had said. She wouldn't do that sort of stuff. And it couldn't hurt to give training a try – it was said to be quite exciting. Or so the humans said.

Cowrie finally made it to the building she was looking for, and entered. It wasn't a big building...it wasn't too much larger than most of the houses around here. And inside the building...well, there was essentially the town's pokemon 'professor', a woman who appeared to be in about her thirties or so (by Cowrie's best guess). Actually, the woman wasn't exactly a professor – not like some in some other places – but she was the best thing the town had. She was, at least, the one around here that seemed to know best about pokemon...

The woman turned around at the sound of the door opening. "Hello," she said. "Come to get your pokemon , wasn't it?"

Cowrie nodded. "Yeah. And yeah, I've come to get my pokemon." She resisted the urge to bounce up and down on her feet. Cowrie didn't think most people would forget her face...after all, she'd been one of the only morphs to take the test this time around...

"Excellent. And you've come at a decent time; I've still got a good selection left." The woman motioned for Cowrie to follow her into another room. Cowrie happily obeyed.

The room contained several shelves, each of which had pokeballs on it, grouped according to the type of pokemon inside: one shelf had grass types, one shelf had water types, and one had fire types – the three main types of pokemon used for starter pokemon, Cowrie knew. Another shelf had various fewer pokeballs, though they were still grouped by type.

"There's quite a lot to choose from," remarked Cowrie. "And I can choose only one?"

"Just one," said the woman. "For now, at least. I like to keep a wide selection of pokemon, handy – gives new trainers more choices."

"Okay..." Cowrie stared at the various balls for a moment. "Um...is there any way to actually tell what's inside?"

"Not really...until you release the pokemon."

Cowrie picked a ball from the grass-type shelf, at random. "All right...here goes," she said, pushing the button on the ball.

The pokemon came out in a flash of red light. A small, lizard-like pokemon stood on the floor. "Kiiiiiimori!" it cried.

"Ah, that's the Treecko," said the woman. "Not too common around these parts, actually. It would make a nice starter."

Cowrie stared at the lizard for a moment. "It's not quite what I want, though," she said. "Sorry little dude, but you're going back in."

"Mori..." said the treecko as it was sucked back into the ball.

She chose another ball, this time from the water-type pile. Out came...a totodile.

"Eh, those things have a nasty bite," said Cowrie. "Not quite what I want, either. Ack." She hurriedly recalled the totodile as it made its way towards her leg. She didn't want to risk getting a chomp from it right now!

Several pokeballs later, Cowrie still hadn't quite found a pokemon she liked. "You're a tough customer," joked the woman. "But don't worry. I'm sure you'll find one soon. Everyone always does."

"I hope so," said Cowrie. She started to reach for the grass pile again, and then stopped when she noticed a pokeball that was sitting aside from nearly all the rest (except for one other pokeball). "What're those?"

"That's the poison-type pile," said the woman. "There's not too much demand for those. People just don't see any thrill in training poison types, I guess. So I don't look for too many of them."

Cowrie reached for one of the balls. "I dunno...none of the other types seem to have worked for me..." She cradled the ball in her hand for a moment, and then pushed the button.

What spilled out onto the floor was a dark blue, long-eared, spiny pokemon. "Dooran!" the pokemon said, shaking its head.

"Oh geez, it's so cute," said Cowrie. "And people don't like training poison types?"

"Cuteness isn't everything when it comes to training, though," said the woman. She looked at the nidoran for a moment. "Strange...everything but the color on that guy reads male."

"What, would that affect anything?"

"Not really. It just means he's oddly-colored, that's all."

"Ah. Okay." Cowrie looked at the nidoran, also. Currently he was sniffing around the woman's feet. "...I'll take him, then."

"Are you absolutely sure?" asked the woman. "Nidoran aren't exactly the strongest pokemon there are..."

"I'm sure," replied Cowrie. She knelt down, and carefully picked up the nidoran, which squeaked when she touched it. "I don't care if he's not strong...I'll make sure he becomes strong, then." She rubbed the nidoran's head, avoiding the horn. In response, the nidoran pushed his head up against her head. "I think he likes me, already." Cowrie giggled.

* * *

Cowrie received a pokedex and a set of pokeballs from the woman, including the one the nidoran had originally come in. "I see no use in making a pokemon get used to another ball," the woman said. "And pokeballs like that come cheap, anyways."

"Thanks a lot," said Cowrie, smiling at the woman. She waved farewell, and started the walk back to her own house.

Halfway there, she let the nidoran back out of the ball. The rabbit-like pokemon blinked his eyes in the sunlight.

"You know, little guy...I probably should give you a name. Or do you already have one?" Cowrie knelt down, so that she didn't look as imposing to the small creature (or so she hoped). She held out her hand, to allow the nidoran to sniff it. The nidoran backed up for a moment, and then reached out to sniff at Cowrie's hand.

"Hehe, that tickles," said Cowrie, pulling her hand away – a little too fast, which caused the nidoran to flinch back. "You're a jumpy little thing – but don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you.

So what about it, you got a name already?"

Cowrie knew that some pokemorphs could understand the pokemon language. Cowrie, however, wasn't quite one of them. She could understand them sometimes...but would now be one of those times, if the nidoran spoke?

The nidoran didn't speak, but instead shook his head no.

"No? Hmm..." Cowrie thought for a moment, but couldn't come up with anything. "Ah well. I'm sure we could come up with one for you, soon enough. She started to position the pokeball to call back the nidoran, but decided against it. "Nah. It wouldn't be too much of a bother to just carry you back normally right now. And besides, this way, I wouldn't have to wait too long to show you to Mom!"

* * *

That night, as Cowrie lay in her bed, she found she couldn't get to sleep easily enough. The nidoran, whom she had finally dubbed "Aiken", was sound asleep on the covers beside her. Thankfully, his back was facing away from Cowrie...so she didn't have to worry too much about getting poked...

_That would be painful_, she thought.

Her mother, while she didn't seem too please with the pokemon Cowrie had chosen, hadn't seem to be displeased, either. Not that what her mother thought about Aiken mattered much to Cowrie, though – she had wanted him, and now she had him...

_He really is a cute little thing_. Cowrie reached over and lightly traced her finger over the tip of Aiken's ear. The nidoran snorted in his sleep, and twitched a foot. Cowrie pulled her hand away before she woke him up for real.

_He's getting his sleep right now. So should I_. Cowrie tried to relax, and closed her eyes. She settled her head against her pillow, and cleared her mind of everything – well, she tried to, that is. She still felt like tossing and turning around, and she thought she would never get to sleep – but she eventually did, without ever realizing it, not until she woke up the next morning.

Morning found Cowrie to still be a bit groggy, but not enough that it dampened her mood too much. "Today would be the day I definitely go out a-journeying," she said to herself, with a small smile. Technically, yesterday could've been that day, but hey – she hadn't _had_ to start yesterday, did she? Besides, waiting until today had allowed her to finish packing up whatever stuff she needed.

Several changes of clothes, some food, her pokemon stuff – and, of course, some money from her mother (and a card to go with it). "Don't use this card unless you absolutely need money," Cowrie's mother said. "You can't just go around spending all the money we have."

"I know, Mom," said Cowrie, hoisting her backpack over her shoulders. The pack was lighter than it looked. "You've told me about stuff like that. Use money only for food, for clothes, for shelter..." Cowrie held up a finger for each item that she listed.

"That's right, dear." Cowrie's mother reached forward to give her a hug. "Oh, your father might like to see this...if only he were here right now..."

"Oh yeah...he's still on that trip of his, isn't he?" Cowrie's father had gone off on some pokemon-related business of his own. "Well, maybe if I'm lucky, I'll spot him while I travel."

"Perhaps."

Cowrie found herself in the grab of another hug. "Er, mom? Too many more of those and I won't ever be able to leave." She chuckled, and, even though she had said that, she gave her mother an embrace of her own. "Bye, mom. I'll see you...er, whenever, I guess."

"Goodbye. Be careful, dear."

"You know I will, mom." Cowrie grinned at her mother, and then walked out the door. Her hand strayed to touch her right pants pocket, which contained only one pokeball at the moment – Aiken's. For now, she had thought it best that the nidoran stayed inside the ball...at least until she was free of the town. Once they were clear and into the open fields, then she could let him out and let him romp around as much as he wanted...but until then...

* * *

"Hey, look at this, Aiken, isn't this nice?"

Cowrie rocked back and forth on her heels as she looked around her. The main part of the town was behind her; ahead of her was a large area of greenish field, with a forest somewhere nearby, though still some distance away. "And it has all this area to run around, also!" Cowrie had been out here many times – it was a place where she had liked to play with other kids that hadn't minded playing with her.

Although, now she would be traveling farther out than she had ever been allowed to travel, before...she had her eye on that forest in the distance. That would probably be a good place to go looking for other pokemon.

"Doran!" said Aiken, hopping around and sniffing at random blades of grass. He found a few flowers, and started munching on those. Cowrie let him eat them – she figured that the flowers couldn't be too harmful to the nidoran.

She started walking ahead, her tail leaving a small wake in the grass. "C'mon, Aiken," she said over her shoulder to the nidoran. "Or you're gonna be left behind!" Not that Cowrie would actually leave him behind on purpose...but it was an incentive of sorts to get the nidoran to start moving again.

"Nido." Aiken took one last sniff at another random clump of grass, and hopped after Cowrie.

* * *

The two of them walked for some while, before Cowrie decided to take a break. The forest was closer by now, though still a little ways off. The furret-morph walked down the side of a small hill, before finally stopping and taking off her pack.

"This thing isn't heavy," she said. "But man, is it a bit awkward to carry." She dumped it unceremoniously on the grass. "I'll probably get used to it...I'm sorta gonna have to..."

"Nido?" Aiken looked up at Cowrie with a questioning look. His nose twitched.

"Hmm?" Cowrie looked at him. "I dunno what you just said, but if you were asking to go do anything, then be my guest, go do it. Just don't wander off too far, okay?"

"Nido!" The dark-blue nidoran bobbed his head up and down before he scampered off to wherever it was that he wanted to go. Cowrie sighed, and, opening up her pack, took out a blanket she had put in there. She spread it out on the grass – she wanted to sit down, and she wanted to avoid getting any grass stains on her clothes, if she could.

She grabbed her pack and moved it closer to her, so that she could recline against it. She looked over to where she had seen Aiken go, and she was happy to see the nidoran still within sight range. Cowrie was a little worried about losing him – since she still hadn't gotten a chance to try and train him, yet...

Cowrie looked up at the sky – it was extremely blue at the moment, with quite a few puffy clouds hanging in it. She watched the clouds go by, and that, along with the silence around here (except for a few chirping insects), lulled her into taking a small nap...

...which was eventually interrupted by the sound of a pokemon's cry.

"Raaan!"

"Wha?" Cowrie was startled to learn that she had been asleep – she hadn't meant to do that! She rubbed her eyes and looked over to find Aiken standing nearby, looking out at something. "What? What is it...?" Perhaps the nidoran had found another pokemon, and was just telling Cowrie of its location...

Cowrie looked for herself. Nope...definitely not a pokemon out there, not one that Cowrie could see. There were humans, though...a couple of them in a group.

She stood up, and packed her blanket back up, shaking any grass and dirt out of it beforehand. "It's okay," she said to Aiken, who had started to bristle up by now. "I doubt they're gonna cause us any harm..."

Cowrie had no desire to go near the humans right now. She had no reason to – even if they were other trainers. She had no other pokemon yet besides Aiken, and she didn't know if he was even able to battle anything, yet.

"Nido..."

Putting her pack over her back, Cowrie walked over to the nidoran, and knelt to scratch him between the ears. "Now, now, little guy..."

Cowrie looked up, and noticed one of the humans was pointing at her. She froze, her hand still positioned over Aiken's head. That one human detached himself from the rest of the group, and started walking over in Cowrie's direction.

Cowrie slowly stood up. Her legs ached slightly. I wonder what he wants, she thought, as a feeling of anxiety washed over her. She didn't do anything except watch the human approach her.

He looked to be around Cowrie's age, at least – he was probably slightly older than that. Brown hair, about neck-length or so, covered his head, and seemed to get into his eyes as well. That would've been a bit endearing, to Cowrie – if she had actually liked the look in the human's eyes.

She started to step backwards, but the human stopped a few yards away from her, much to her relief. Nothing was said for a moment, and then the human finally spoke up. "Are you a trainer, also?"

"Y-yeah...I am," replied Cowrie. "What –"

The human snorted. "A fine lot they allow to become trainers these days. If I was in charge of things, I wouldn't allow your kind to become trainers."

"My kind?" Cowrie didn't like the way this human was speaking. "And what's wrong with my kind?"

"Oh, nothing much – except that it's rather perverted to see someone who's half pokemon to be training pokemon." The human sneered. "Anyways, since you are a trainer – or so you claim – then maybe you wouldn't mind a slight battle?"

"No...I wouldn't mind at all..." Cowrie turned to Aiken. "Hey, Aiken, would you mind battling a little bit right now?"

"Nido?" Aiken cocked his head at her.

The human's eyes alit on Aiken. "Please tell me you have something else besides a creature like that."

"Nope, sorry, I don't," said Cowrie, glaring at the human. "There's nothing wrong with him, anyways..."

"Nidorans aren't worth my battling time," said the human, with another sneer. "I'd rather my own pokemon fight something stronger."

"I'm sure Aiken is strong enough," said Cowrie. "Why not even give him a chance?"

"A chance? You want me to give a weak pokemon like that a chance?" The human laughed. "Fine, I'll give it – "

"Him," corrected Cowrie. "Aiken's a him."

"It's a weird-looking 'him', then. Male nidorans are usually pinker than that. But fine. I'll give _him_ a chance." The human started to look through his collection of pokeballs. "Oh, by the way, even though I don't usually give out my name to freaks like you, I'm about to battle your pokemon – and I always give my name out to people I battle, since they know who has just beaten them. Name's Taro. And yours?"

God, he was cocky. "Cowrie," she said. The glare in her eyes intensified.

"Cowrie. Weird name. Though I suppose a weird name fits a freak perfectly." He ignored the seething of the furret morph. "All right, I've found my weakest pokemon. It ought to give you a bit of a handicap – hopefully." Taro chuckled, and released the pokemon. A caterpie.

"Caught it in the forest a couple days ago," he said. "Still a bit weak, though I've been working on training it. Too bad you don't have any strong pokemon – I've been dying to find someone with whom I can use my strongest pokemon."

By now, Cowrie had tuned out most of what Taro was saying. "Just...shut up," she said, managing to not shout it out like she wanted. "A caterpie...that thing's even smaller than Aiken, though." She shrugged. "Ah well, if you really wanna use it, then that's your choice." She grinned. "If I _do_ win, though, then you can't complain about it."

"I'll have no reason to complain," said Taro. "Just you watch."

"Hmph." Cowrie snorted. "Go on, Aiken, show this moron that you're not weak."

"Nido!" Aiken shook himself, and faced the caterpie. He was a little confused at the moment – why did he have to battle this caterpie? It seemed a bit unfair to the nidoran...since he did have a little size advantage, here...

"Your move, first," said Taro.

"Fine." Cowrie paused a moment as she thought about what moves she thought an inexperienced nidoran might have. She gave up with trying to figure that out. "Aiken, attack!" she said, pointing a finger at the caterpie.

Aiken promptly replied, charging at the caterpie in a Tackle attack.

The small bug pokemon sidestepped the attack. "Hehe," chuckled Taro. "Looks like that didn't work. Now it's my turn. Caterpie!" He pointed his own finger at Aiken. "Use a string shot on that rabbit!"

"Kyataaaa!" The caterpie spat out some string in Aiken's face, just as the nidoran was about to tackle it.

"Nido!" cried out Aiken, trying to get the gummy white stuff off him. He pawed at it, but found that it just stuck to his paws and any fur of his that it touched.

"I believe I won that first round," said Taro, with a grin at Cowrie.

Cowrie seethed some more.

"Aiken!" she said. "If you can still see, then tackle that caterpie again!"

"Doran!" The nidoran, who was able to see, charged at the caterpillar again – and his attack was answered with another spit of string, this time gumming up his legs. He stumbled in the grass, and was then tackled by the caterpie.

"That's not fair!" cried Cowrie. She glared at Taro. "Tell your stupid bug to stop it! Aiken can't attack properly right now!"

"If he can't attack, then maybe you should give up," said Taro. "That way, at least your rabbit won't be beaten _too_ hard by a mere _bug_."

"But-!" Cowrie thought for a moment. Seeing Aiken there, trussed up in caterpie silk, allowed her to make up her mind. "Fine, then. I give up for now. But only because Aiken can't battle properly right now."

Taro laughed. "I told you." He recalled the caterpie, leaving only the nidoran lying there on the grass. "I should've know my assumptions about your pokemon were indeed correct – if he could be beaten by a _caterpie_..."

Shut up, again." Cowrie walked over to Aiken, and picked him up. "God, you're a mess right now," she said to him, starting to pick off the gummy silk.

"That nidoran of yours definitely wasn't worth my battling time," complained Taro. "Although I did have the satisfaction of seeing someone else get defeated. And easily, too. This just proves that freaks like you shouldn't be training pokemon. You're just not cut out for it."

"Give me time," said Cowrie. "I haven't even been training pokemon for that long..."

Taro had a smug look on his face. "Morphs just don't have the ability to train pokemon properly. That's why people usually don't allow morphs to become trainers. They say morphs eventually corrupt the pokemon they train – although I don't really believe that. I would love for you to prove me wrong about morph trainers – though I doubt you will."

Cowrie ground her teeth. "And why is that? Like I said, just give me time!"

Taro waved his hand. "Whatever. I must be going now. See you later – unless you don't acquire any new, good pokemon, in which case I wouldn't care if I ever see you again or not." He walked away.

He didn't look back right then, but if he had, he would've seen a quite pissed-off furret morph.

"I _really_ don't like him," she growled. "That bastard...who does he think he is?" She sighed, and then went back to picking the stuff off Aiken. "You did well enough," she said. "If only that stupid bug hadn't gotten this goop all over you, then you might have had a better chance."

Aiken's ears flicked. "Nidooo." He didn't care that he had essentially lost the battle – he just wanted this stupid stuff off him!

* * *

By the time late afternoon came, Cowrie had managed to get most of the caterpie silk off Aiken. "Sorry I couldn't get it all off," she said apologetically. "But that's at least better than before, isn't it?"

"Nido!" Aiken twitched his ears.

Cowrie smiled. "I knew it," she said, scratching him between those ears.

There were still a few hours left before nightfall actually came, and Cowrie didn't know what would happen if she were still outside by that time. Hopefully there was some good place around here to stop...

By now, she had reached the edge of the forest. She could plainly see a trail that led into it – a trail that must've been used by many other people many times before, by how beaten it looked.

Aiken balked when he set foot on the trail. He shied back away as he looked into the forest.

"C'mon." Cowrie tried to coax him into moving, but it didn't work – the nidoran stubbornly stood where he was. She took out the nidoran's pokeball from her pocket. "Sorry about this," she said. "But I think this is the best way for you to travel right now." She sort of needed him...and if he wasn't about to move...

The nidoran made no sound of dissent, and Cowrie recalled him into the ball. "At least you don't have to look and be scared by anything," she said to the ball.

She wondered if a pokemon inside a ball could hear anything being said. She thought no – after all, there wasn't much in the way of openings on such balls, so how could the creature hear anything outside?

Cowrie shrugged, and pocketed the ball. No sense in wondering about things like that too much right now – she had places to go. Well, sort of...she didn't really know where she was going, just where she was coming from.

She didn't see too many other people near the trail right now – she saw a few humans, but they were a bit too busy with looking for pokemon that they didn't pay much attention to the furret-morph. That was fine with Cowrie – it was probably better that she didn't draw too much attention to herself right now. Else she might have to end up confronting another person like that stupid jerk from before...

Or maybe he had just been the exception. Either way, Cowrie didn't want to meet up with someone else like him.

A flash of movement drew her attention to something among the leaves. A caterpie, yellow-green in color, was worming its way through the leaf litter near the edge of the trail. Cowrie stared at it for a good few moments before finally thinking of what to do.

_Should I even try to catch it?_ She wondered. It didn't seem like the biggest pokemon there ever was – of course, that was how most caterpies were.

_Eh, I will._ Cowrie took out one of her unused pokeballs, and flicked it at the caterpillar. It hit the caterpie on its tail, and the bug was sucked into the ball in a flash of red light.

Cowrie held her breath for a moment. _Did it...work?_ Even with weaker pokemon, trying to catch them before weakening them didn't always work.

The ball rocked a couple times, and Cowrie was worried that the bug would spill out of the ball – but it didn't. She stared at the ball, until she finally realized what had happened. "Whoop!" she cried out, walking forward and reaching down to grab the ball.

Cowrie heard footsteps. "Hey, not bad," said a voice from behind her.


	2. A pokemon fic of a sorta different sort ...

(As with the last chapter, everything is subject to be rewritten. This one seemed more or less like a "filler" chapter to me, compared to what I originally had in mind...)

* * *

Cowrie froze, still crouched down. She turned around, wondering if it was another human - but it wasn't, much to her surprise. It was another morph like her - well, not exactly like her. This guy was a ninetales...while she, of course, was a furret...

She hastily stood up, wobbling a bit as she got all her balance back. "Thanks," she said hastily. She still held the caterpie's pokeball, though she quickly forgot she was doing so.

"I see you're a pokemon trainer, as well," said the ninetales. "It's nice to see more and more pokemorphs becoming trainers, nowadays - it just goes to show that it's not something only humans are good at."

"Yeah..." said Cowrie. At least this guy was much nicer than that human...

"Oh, excuse me," said the ninetales. "Here I am, yammering to some stranger I've just met, and I haven't even told you my name. Coal." He offered out his hand for Cowrie to shake.

She shook it. "Hiya," she said. "I'm Cowrie."

"Nice name," he replied, though his reply seemed a bit absent-minded. "How long have you been a trainer, Cowrie?"

"Not too long, actually," said Cowrie. "Just started earlier today." She blushed a little with embarrassment.

"And you have at least one pokemon already. Not bad," said Coal, his eyes going to the pokeball still in Cowrie's hand. Cowrie finally remembered she was holding the ball, and gripped onto it even tighter.

"I'm not going to take it," the ninetales said. "I have no need for taking other people's pokemon."

"I wasn't worried about that, actually," said Cowrie. She put the ball into her pocket. "So where you from, Coal? I don't think I've ever seen you around town..."

"You mean that town nearby?" And at Cowrie's nod he continued talking. "I'm not from that town, actually."

"That would explain why I've never seen you around, then." Cowrie looked around her. "It's getting rather dark now. You wouldn't know of anyplace to stay, would you...?"

"Actually, I do." Coal pointed somewhere up the trail. "There's a rest area somewhere up the trail; I saw it sometime earlier, but didn't have any need of it."

"A rest area? Well, that's good..."

"Come on. I could show you the way, if you'd allow me to. And besides, it's not good to be alone out in the woods when it gets dark. You never know what's out there."

"Yeah, I know..."

Coal smiled at her. "You sound like I'm berating you, or something," he said. "Don't worry, I'm not. Now, if you will..." He started to walk along the trail, and then turned back and motioned for Cowrie to follow.

"So...what other kinds of pokemon do you have?" Coal asked, once the two of them were walking. Cowrie was walking alongside the ninetales - she didn't trust him enough to let him walk behind her.

"Just a nidoran and that caterpie I caught not too long ago," replied Cowrie. "No, not the best selection I could have, but I'm satisfied with it right now."

"You didn't get a regular starter pokemon, like everybody else?" asked Coal.

"Aiken _was_ my starter pokemon," said Cowrie.

"Aiken...?"

"The nidoran."

"Ah." Coal was silent for a moment. "That's just a bit odd, you know? Most other trainers I've seen usually have something like...oh, I dunno, a charmander or a bulbasaur or some other pokemon of those same types."

"Saw them," said Cowrie. "Wasn't satisfied with them."

"And you were satisfied with the nidoran?"

"Yeah." Cowrie kicked at a rock in her way. "There's nothing wrong with picking a nidoran, is there?"

"Not at all. It's just a bit unconventional, that's all."

"Good."

"May I see it?"

"Him," Cowrie found herself correcting Coal automatically. "Nah, I dunno if now would be the best time to show him. He didn't seem to be too fond of this area."

"I don't think I could blame the little guy," said Coal. "Maybe you could show me once we get into there." He pointed at what appeared to be a cabin of sorts. "That's the rest area."

Oh, cool. Sure. And, what, we just go inside?"

"Yep. We just go inside, and relax, or do whatever."

* * *

Some time later, Cowrie was sitting on a padded bench, reclining back against the wall. "Not the most comfortable of conditions, I'll say that much. But it sure beats staying outside."

"Which is exactly why they set these kinds of places up," said Coal. He was sitting down as well - on a bench that was set perpendicular to the one Cowrie was sitting on.

Besides the two pokemorphs, there were also some human trainers inside, though they were on the opposite side of the room. Cowrie noticed that every so often, glances from the humans would come her way, and every time she noticed a glance, she couldn't help but feel self-conscious.

"Ignore them," suggested Coal. "I get that kind of treatment all the time from various human trainers. I think they think we like being stared at."

"All the time? So you're used to it by now?" Cowrie squirmed in her seat a little.

"Not really. It still makes me feel uncomfortable. Ignoring them is about the best way to handle it."

"Alright." Cowrie tapped her fingers against the covering of the top of the bench, glancing at the humans every so often - until finally it looked like their conversation turned to other things. She let out an inaudible sigh, and then remembered what she had planned to do.

"Oh yeah...I was gonna show you Aiken," she said, taking the nidoran's ball out of her pocket. One press of the button, and the nidoran was out again. He was a bit disoriented, having no idea of where he was right now.

Aiken blinked, and noticed the sitting ninetales morph - and then went ballistic. "Nido!" he cried out in surprise, the spines on his back rising up all the way. He shot under the nearest thing - a small table - and hid there.

"Aikeeen," said Cowrie, standing up and moving over to kneel by the table. "Come on out of there."

"Dooo." Aiken was relieved to see a familiar face...but he didn't budge an inch.

"C'mon."

The nidoran responded by backing up away from Cowrie.

"Fine, be that way." Cowrie started to stand up.

She heard some sniggering coming from the humans' direction. "...Can't even control a small pokemon..." was a phrase she heard, followed by some more snickering.

Her face grew hot, and she refused to look in the humans' direction. She stopped trying to stand up and knelt back down, instead. "C'mon, Aiken, you're being silly. Now come out from there." She reached underneath the table, and hooked her arm around the nidoran. A few cries of protest came from Aiken, and he tried to get out of Cowrie's grasp, but she was able to pull him out from underneath the table.

"Nidoooo!" Aiken's back legs, which weren't being held by Cowrie, began to flail wildly as the nidoran tried to get free. He could still smell the scent of the ninetales morph - a stranger to him.

"He's a feisty thing," said Coal, watching the situation with a look that was a cross between one of amusement and one of concern.

Cowrie finally got Aiken to calm down a bit. She held him close, and then walked over to where Coal was sitting. "I dunno what's up with him," she said. "This is the first time I've seen him act like this...of course, I haven't had him for long, so I don't know if this is how he normally acts..."

"Don't worry about it." Coal reached out one hand, to allow the nidoran to sniff it. Aiken flinched back, causing Cowrie to automatically hold him a little tighter; but after a moment, the nidoran hesitantly stretched out his neck, and sniffed at the ninetales' hand.

"See? I'm not that scary, really," said Coal, with a small grin at the nidoran. He looked at Cowrie. That's not the first time someone else's pokemon has reacted like that to me. Maybe I'm just a little too imposing for some people."

"Perhaps." Cowrie looked the ninetales morph over - and she supposed that if she had been smaller, then perhaps he would appear imposing to her, as well.

"Well...you've showed me your pokemon, perhaps I should show you some of mine." Coal started to rummage through his pack. "It would only be fair-" He stopped when he heard some more laughing from the humans' direction.

"What?" Cowrie turned her head, to see if anything was the matter. Aiken squirmed in her grasp, and she let him down onto the ground.

"Hey look, you dropped your pokemon," exclaimed one of the humans, a young man. "Are you gonna need any help with picking it up?" He and a few of the other humans laughed, although a female trainer there slapped him on the arm and whispered something to him.

Cowrie felt her face go even hotter. She was about to say something, when Coal beat her to it. "Hey, we don't need any of your comments right now," he said to the one young man.

"And I don't need any of yours," retorted the youngster. "So why don't you shut up, you white-furred weirdo?"

"Hey!" said Cowrie, finally finding a chance to speak again. "Don't call him names!"

"Don't worry about him, Cowrie," said Coal. "He's just looking for trouble, is all..."

"I wasn't talking to _you_," said the young man, pointing his finger at Cowrie. "Though I _might_ in a minute. So just shut up for now!"

Cowrie glowered at him, and backed up until her back touched the wall. She slid down onto the bench. Aiken jumped up onto the bench beside her, though she took little notice of him right now.

"Excuse me," Coal said to Cowrie, standing up. Cowrie watched him walk towards the humans (and she had a sudden thought, once she got a good view of his tails - how did he sit comfortably with all those tails?), and then stop once he was a few feet away from the offending human. He didn't pay any attention to any of the other humans, most of who were gaping and gawking at him.

He looked down at the young man. "I don't think it's wise to talk to ladies like you just did," he said, showing a few of his teeth. Coal wasn't too mad at the moment, actually - but he had learned that if he showed he teeth while talking to somebody, the person usually got the hint that he meant business.

"What lady?" scoffed the young man. "You mean her?" He waved his hand in Cowrie's direction.

"Yes, I mean her," said Coal, showing his teeth some more. "She may not look like the lady beside you, but she's still a lady."

Cowrie rubbed her arms. She felt extremely uncomfortable about all this. "Coal..." she said. "Maybe you shouldn't do that...it's okay, really."

Coal turned his head to look at her. "Don't worry," he said. "I'm almost done here."

"The hell you are!" said the young man, standing up and shoving Coal in the chest. The ninetales morph went sprawling back against the nearest wall, hitting his head against it.

"Coal!" Cowrie shouted out, at nearly the same time the one female shouted out "Jason!" at the young man.

Coal stood up, his hand going to the back of his head. He glared at the young man. "Getting violent isn't going to get you anywhere," he snarled.

The young man, dubbed Jason, sneered. "It got me somewhere," he said. "It allowed me to hit your ugly face." He laughed.

Coal refused to be affected by that remark. "Indeed," he said, snorting. A small fire seemed to burn in his eyes.

Cowrie stood up, not liking the looks of where this whole situation was going right now. Aiken nudged her tail, and she startled, until she looked behind her and noticed the nidoran. "Oh, Aiken..." she said, picking him up (being wary of the spines, of course).

"Now," said Coal. "I would like for you to apologize to her - " he gestured at Cowrie, " - for your insensitive remark about her."

"Coal, please," said Cowrie. "It's no big matter...really!"

I'm not going to apologize," said Jason. "Especially not if you tell me to do so!"

That wasn't the smartest remark for him to have made to the ninetales. In one, quick movement, Coal grabbed the young man by the front of his shirt. "Excuse me?" said Coal.

Jason seemed a bit flustered by this sudden action, but quickly regained his composure. "You heard what I said, you big freaking fox," said Jason. "Got a problem with that?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," replied Coal. He let go of Jason's shirt. "But I'm above attacking people just for their words." He started to walk away.

"Hey, get back here!" shouted Jason. "Don't just walk away from me!" He pushed aside his female companion, who had grabbed his arm and had sounded as though she were pleading for him to stop.

_If she is, then that's a wise thing for her to do_, thought Cowrie. Aiken squirmed in her arms, and she held onto him even tighter. "Nido!" he complained.

"Oh...sorry about that," said Cowrie, loosening her grip on the nido.

"ExCUSE me," said Jason, pulling a pokeball out from somewhere. "Don't you just walk away from me!" He pointed a finger at Coal's back.

The ninetales glanced back at him, but didn't do much more than that.

"Jason, please..." said the girl. "This isn't worth getting into a fight over."

"Yeah, right!" he said. "You can't just let those pokemon freaks walk over you like that!" He turned back to Coal. "And as for you..." He threw the pokeball onto the floor. The light that came from it coalesced into an ampharos.

"I know a way to settle this. How about a pokemon battle?"

Cowrie looked at the ampharos. It was stretching its limbs out right now - which didn't surprise Cowrie too much. She supposed that anything that had been cramped into a small space such as a pokeball was bound to want to stretch itself out whenever it came out.

Aiken jumped out of her arms. "Nido!" he cried, his spines rising up in defense.

"Hold up, Aiken, I don't think it's going to hurt you," said Cowrie. She face Coal. "You're not gonna accept it, are you?"

Coal's eyes had turned steely. "Nope," he said, ignoring the ampharos. "He's just trying to rile me up even more - I'm not going to fall for it."

"Good for you," said Cowrie, smiling.

"Oh, come on," said Jason. "Why don't you guys stop whispering to each other and tell me what you're going to do?"

"We're not whispering," said Cowrie.

"I...am not going to accept," said Coal. He walked out the door, leaving a protesting Jason behind.

"Hey, wait-!" he started to yell, and stopped when his female friend said something to him, again. Cowrie couldn't hear what was being said, but she did see the result of it - the ampharos being recalled back into its pokeball, and him stomping back to his side of the cabin. "Lousy bunch of..." And whatever word it was that he used, Cowrie couldn't tell, as his voice had gone so low as to be inaudible.

The girl caught Cowrie's eye, and smiled weakly. "Sorry about that," she said.

Cowrie shrugged indifferently. "Don't worry about it," she said. She went back to the bench where all her stuff was located, while the girl went to rejoin the humans. Cowrie sat down on the bench, and slumped against the wall. Her eyes went to the door. Coal hadn't come back inside yet...his stuff was still here, though, so Cowrie supposed he was probably going to come back in at some point.

It was getting late; the humans had struck up another conversation, and Cowrie listened to their talking (though she didn't try to pick up individual words). Aiken jumped up onto her, and nudged her softly. Cowrie lazily picked up a hand and stroked the fur on his head.

"Hey..." she said, before yawning. Aiken made a sound that resembled a purr, and then curled up in Cowrie's lap.

"Hehe, you've got the right idea, little guy," said Cowrie. She lay down on the bench, first getting Aiken off of her and setting him beside her. The nido let out a small complaint, but otherwise didn't fight it. Cowrie scratched him behind the ears, finding herself drifting off to sleep.

_I wonder when Coal's coming back_, she thought, just before she lost all sense of consciousness.

* * *

Cowrie awoke to sunlight and silence. She looked around, wondering where everybody was - the humans from the night before had gone already...and so had Coal, it seemed. Cowrie looked around for the ninetales morph, but he was nowhere in sight. And neither was any of his stuff.

What she _did_ see was a strange pokeball lying next to her pack - along with a note. Cowrie picked up the note, and read it quietly to herself. "'Sorry I couldn't give this pokeball to you in person, but I had something urgent come up before I had a chance to give it to you. Don't open it inside....wait until you get outside.'"

The note was signed with Coal's name. "Huh, so Coal's gone and left without me, has he...?" Cowrie gingerly picked up the pokeball, and looked at it close up. It was just a regular pokeball, no fancy things on it. Cowrie's curiosity kicked in, and she suddenly wanted to see what it was that Coal had left her. "C'mon, Aiken, let's go outside," she said to her nido companion, who was sitting up and yawning beside her.

"Nido?" Aiken shook his head briskly, and then followed after Cowrie, who had gathered up her stuff and was walking out the door.

"It's a pokeball," Cowrie said to Aiken, holding it out so that the nidoran could sniff at it. "I dunno what's inside it, though...well, I guess I'll find out what it is in a second." She pushed the button on the ball, and it popped open, and...

"DORAN!" Aiken yelped, and hid behind Cowrie. What had come out of the pokeball was a growlithe - a rather ordinary-looking growlithe, with reddish fur. The growlithe wore a teal-colored collar, in which another note was tucked away.

"Huh," said Cowrie, coming up close to the growlithe. The fire-dog made no motions to move, and just gazed at Cowrie as she came closer. The furret morph held out her hand...the growlithe sniffed it, and wagged its tail. Cowrie gently took the note from the collar, and unfolded it to read it.

The handwriting was the same exact as the one that had been on the other note. "'This is just a little present, to help you with your pokemon training. Her name is Hanabi; take good care of her.' Well, isn't that nice of Coal..."

The growlithe - Hanabi - wagged her tail and barked softly, causing Aiken to tremble. "Oh, Aiken," said Cowrie, picking up the shaking rabbit pokemon. "You need to loosen up a bit." She scratched the nido between his ears.

"Nido..." How was Aiken supposed to 'loosen up', though, when there was a growlithe around here?

Cowrie recalled Hanabi, as it didn't look as though Aiken would relax as long as the dog was around. "You silly little rabbit," she said, cradling him carefully against her chest with one arm. "I wouldn't have let her hurt you, anyways." She grinned at the nidoran, and then started walking, looking for the path that would lead her out of this forest.


End file.
